Week in Review...

It was my birthday on Friday and Abby and I stayed home all day and watched the new Beauty and the Beast, I made a cake and talked to family:) It was perfect! I got spoiled!

After having cake and opening up presents Ashlyn and I went to a stake Activity days T-Party. Abby didn't go, but she had to match Ashlyn of course!

This was a few weeks ago, getting new shoes for Ashlyn at KMart means riding on the carousel first!

Ashlyn performed with the other girls in our ward in the Talent show, they did the dance, Runaway from Love while wearing glowsticks and the lights were off. It was really cute!

Evie Claire was the special guest, she used to live in our stake but now lives in Florence. She's a contestant on America's Got Talent right now, so I can't post any videos until Sept. 24th:) She is such a sweetheart though, and just wants to share the gospel through her music. Her father is fighting for survival in a hospital right now, stage 4 colon cancer. So her life is pretty hectic, she was so sweet to come!

Week in Review...

My parents at their 50th celebration! They're so cute!!

All of the grand kids after church, except for some of the Whittle who arrived a few minutes later, and me!

The whole family!

I asked Abby if I could take her pic and she said, only if you're in it!

The whole family after church..

Abby loves to smother Lucky whenever she can:)

The whole family..Randy took our pictures and he did a great job!

All of the siblings with mom and dad:)

My little family:)

I took my Arizona Educators Professional Assessment test yesterday and passed! Now, if I successfully finish all of my courses and survive student teaching, I can officially become a teacher! One more hurdle is crossed!

Week in Review...

Here are some more pics of Tahoe, we had so much fun out in the water. Ashlyn had a really hard time with how cold the water is! You can see it on her face in this pic....

 Here are Sarah and I enjoying the icey cold water, it felt so good!!

 My daddy, Sarah and I swimming...

 When we got home Abby hopped right on her jungle gym...

 Rick was able to go kayaking yesterday and saw lots of wild horses...

 Wednesday was the first day of school! Haley is in 10th grade at Red Mountain High School...

 Jacob is in 4th grade with Miss Brown at Zaharis Elementary...

 Ashlyn is in 6th grade with Mrs. Bullard at Zaharis Elementary...

 Abby and I are at home together and we only have 1 daycare child to watch this year and I'll be watching her preschool teachers son while Abby attends preschool. It will be a fun year for us too!

Today we got to attend the Tuscon Temple Dedication....this is the 4th Temple dedication that we've attended since moving to Arizona! Arizona now has 6 temples, right before we moved here we were able to attend the Draper Temple Dedication and so we have been blessed to witness 5 temple dedications in the last 10 years, how cool!! President Uchtdorf presided over the dedication and he has many fond attachments to Arizona. He received weapons training at Luke Air Force Base and while he was there he received his patriarchal blessing and took out his endowments in the Mesa Temple! Then later on he received his first qualification for flying in Tuscon, which he needed with flying for Lufthansa. So he has a strong attachment to Arizona and it was sweet to hear him reminisce and praise the youth that had performed in the cultural celebration the night before. We are so blessed to have so many temples nearby us, Arizona is growing and we are so lucky to be a part of it:)

Week in Tahoe!

On Friday we started our journey to Tahoe, we stopped at Mammoth Lakes for the night. The kids went exploring and found these huge pinecones!

On Saturday we got up and we couldn't check into our home at Tahoe until 4 p.m. so we went exploring again...Rick grew up camping at Virginia Lakes and so we decided to check it out. It was extremely high up! We are thinking it was around 9500 to 10000 ft and as we were climbing to the lake, I started realizing that I am not very fond of heights! It was pretty scary for me! We finally made it up and got out to explore, we found snow and so the kids were in heaven! We had a picnic lunch and then headed out to journey our way to Tahoe...

Here's the beautiful brand new home that my parents rented out and let our family, Carries family and Sarah's family join them for the week. My other siblings stayed in other homes, this was the first time that our whole family was able to be together since Carrie's wedding. We were together to celebrate my parent's 50th Anniversary. We had an amazing week!

On Sunday we were all able to go to church together and then we met at the Tallac Historic Site to talk about the schedule for the week and walk through the grounds....

On Monday we got together to have Family Home Evening and we learned how my parents met and dated and then my dad had a few of us siblings share our favorite scripture and then my dad gave us a lesson on Decisions determine Destiny. It was a great night, topped off by a bear walking behind the church! Wow!! The bear proceeded to  walk across the street, tear through a gate and climb on top of a van! Wow, what a night we will never forget!

On Tuesday we rented bikes and got to travel along the bike path. I've been riding that trail ever since I was a young kid in a bike trailer! Lots of memories!

Picture of Virginia Lakes...

My niece Emily painted this detailed family picture of our family for my parents. It is beautiful! She did such a good job!!

Before we left for Tahoe Abby had a play date with her friend Darwyn...

The kids also got to take a horse ride around the park with our neighbors horse...

They also got to go to the pool with our other neighbors...

Haley and Ashlyn got to try the Flo Rider!

Abby enjoyed having cousin time at the cabin...this is Carrie's son Ethan..

This is the baby of the family, baby Austin, Carrie's other son...

Such a sweetheart!

My Dad!

My mom:)

Amy and Ashlyn, Amy is Kim's youngest daughter...

Anna and Haley, Anna is Kim's third daughter...

All of Kim's daughters with Haley:)

Anna and Haley, best cousins since they were babies:)

We had lots of fun on the beach...

Abby had lots of fun on the sand...

Jared and Kelli Whittle and Melissa hanging out on the beach..

Carrie, Zach, Ethan and Austin on the beach:)

Family Home Evening with the whole family...

Kim sharing the story of how they met...

Opening the family tree picture...

Kelli put together a family memories book that she presented...

Dad giving us a lesson, before the bear sighting...

Sarah and Brett....Sarah is pregnant with baby girl #2:)

Ashlyn and Audree are cute friends. Zachary, kelli and Jared Whittle are in the background...

Cute little Brooklyn and Brynlee, Ronny's youngest girls...

Brigham is Ronny's 4th child...

Some of the family took a hike to Eagle Falls on Tuesday morning, they had a great time and said it was beautiful!

Group of hikers...

On Thursday we went to Sugar Pine Pt which I had never been to, it has lots of rocks to jump off of and a long pier to jump off of, we also rented a paddle board, that was probably my most favorite day! Here are Ashlyn, Alta and Jacob ready to jump off of the pier. Alta is Ryan's oldest daughter.

Melissa and Jonah in the kayak, Melissa is Ryan's wife...

Lake Tahoe has the clearest water I've ever seen, you can see straight to the bottom. It is gorgeous! Lake Tahoe is my favorite place on Earth!

Haley paddle boarding and Brielle, Ronny's oldest child is on the left...

Ashlyn even paddle boarded! It was my first time and I loved it!

I even took Abby out and she loved it too!

Ashlyn, Alta and Audree, cute cousin friends!

Ethan, Jacob and Cameron:) Cameron is Kelli's son...

Zach, Carrie and Austin...

Anna and Haley...

This is a picture of the cabin that we grew up going to every year. We went there from when I was a young child to after I was married and had 2 kids! Many years! Then the owner sold it, so we had to find a new place to rent, lots of memories spent at this cabin...

Here I am paddle boarding, loved it!

We had a wonderful week at Tahoe! Here we are after Church, this was supposed to just be the grandkids, but I had to jump in for Abby to not freak out...

 Our family branch on the tree...

 The blob of the bear peeking around the church...

 You can just barely see the bear, he's the speck near the bottom of the church building...

 bear...

 Bike ride...

 Abby freaked out at first, being in the trailer but then she decided it was actually fun!

 Taking Ethan for a nature walk...

 Haley enjoying being swung by Abby in the hammock at kim's place...

 Horse Shoes at Kim's place...

 Whole family after church on Sunday, so grateful for my parent's and the wonderful example of love and patience and kindness and generosity that they have shown to the whole family. 50 years! What an accomplishment, thanks for the great week of fun memories that we shared with the whole family!